Cultures of China
Chinese culture:
China is comes under the continent of Asia. China
is located in the eastern sub-region of the Asian Continent. China (orange) is
the fourth largest country in the world according to the total area and borders
14 countries in the Continent of Asia.
China is the one of the world's oldest cultures, originating
thousands of years ago. China came in to existence in 1949 and that was
accepted as a country in the world first time by its very friendly country
Pakistan. The area over which the culture prevails covers a large
geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying,
having the unique culture of each region with customs and traditions varying
greatly between towns, Cities, Provinces and even villages as well.
The Civilization of Chinese historically is considered the
dominant culture of East Asia. With China being one of the earliest
and old Civilizations, Chinese culture exerts profound influence on the virtue,
philosophy, etiquette, and traditions of Asia to date. Chinese
language, ceramics, architecture, music, dance, literature, martial
arts, cuisine, visual arts, philosophy, business etiquette, religion, politics,
and history have global influence, while its traditions and festivals are
also celebrated, instilled, and practiced by people around the world.
IDENTITY :
Chinese Government and higher Authorities divided Chinese into
four Classes from the Qin dynasty to the late Qing dynasty (221 BC – AD 1840), divided
classes are: Landlord, Peasant, Craftsmen and merchant. Merchant and craftsmen
were collected into the two minor Classes, While Landlords and peasants
constituted the two major classes. Theoretically, except for the position of
the Emperor, nothing was hereditary.
China's majority ethnic group, the Han Chinese are an East Asian Ethnic
group and nation. They constitute approximately 92% of the population of China,
95% of Taiwan( Han Taiwanese), 76% of the Singapore, 23% of
Malaysia, and about 17% of the global population, making them the World’s
largest ethnic group, numbering over 1.3 billion people.
Officially there are 56 labeled ethnic groups in the new and
modern era. Throughout Chinese history, many non-Chinese ethnic groups have
assimilated with the Han Chinese, retained their distinct ethnic identities, or
faded away. At the same time, throughout the ages the Han Chinese
majority has maintained distinct linguistic and regional cultural traditions.
The term Zhonghua has been used to describe the notion of Chinese nationalism in
general. Much of the traditional identity within the community has to do with
distinguishing the family name.
Regional:
After
the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), during the 361 years of civil war there was
a partial restoration of feudalism when wealthy and powerful families
emerged with huge numbers of semi-serfs and large amounts of land. They
dominated important military and civilian positions of the government, and to
set their own family members and clans on the positions and making them in
power. After the Tang dynasty's yellow emergence, the government
extended the imperial examination system as an attempt to eradicate this
feudalism and to overcome the level showing system. Traditional Chinese culture
covers large geographical territories, where each region is usually divided
into distinct sub-cultures and having their own specific kind of culture and
traditions. Each region is often represented by three ancestral items. For
example, Guangdong is represented by hay, chenpi and aged ginger. And the
others include old and ancient cities like Lin'an (Hangzhou), which include
shoot trunk, tea leaf, hickory nut and bamboo. Such distinctions give rise
to the old Chinese proverb: (十里不同風, 百里不同俗/十里不同風) praxis vary within ten li, customs vary within a
hundred li". The 31 provincial-level divisions of the People’s
Republic of China grouped by its former
administrative areas from 1949 to 1980, which are now known as traditional
regions of the China.
Social structure
Some form of Chinese monarch has been the main ruler above all, Since
the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period, and within the Society for
the various positions different periods of history have different names.
Conceptually each feudal or imperial period is similar, with the military and
government officials in the hierarchy ranking high, and the rest of the
population under regular Chinese law. From the late Zhou dynasty (1046–256
BCE) onwards, traditional Chinese society was organized into a hierarchic
system of socio-economic classes known as the 4 occupations.
However, this system did not cover all social groups while the
distinctions between all groups became blurred ever since the commercialization
of Chinese culture in the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE).The old Chinese education also
has a long history; ever since the Sui dynasty (581–618 CE) educated
candidates prepared for the imperial examinations which drafted exam graduates
into government as Scholar-bureaucrats. This led to the creation of a
meritocracy and having skilled educators, although success was available only
to males who could afford test preparation.it was required by the Imperial
examinations for the applicants to write essays and demonstrate mastery of the
Confucian classics. Those who passed the highest level of the exam became elite
scholar-officials known as Jinshi, a highly esteemed socio-economic position. A
major mythological structure developed around the topic of the mythology of the
imperial exams. It was usually taught by the shifu crafts and Trades. Lessons
for women written by the female historian Ban Zhao in the Han dynasty and
outlined the four virtues women must abide to, while scholars such as Cheng Xi and Zhu Xi would
expand upon this. Chines Taoist sexual practices and marriages are some of the
customs and rituals found in society.
Beginning in the mid in the 19th century, with the
rise of European military power and European economic, non-Chinese systems of
social and political organization gained adherents in China. Some of these
would-be reformers totally rejected China's cultural legacy, while others
sought to combine the strengths of Chinese and European cultures. In essence,
the history of 20th-century China is one of experimentation with new systems of
social, political, and economic organization that would allow for the
reintegration of the nation in the wake of dynastic collapse.
Spiritual
values
Spiritually the more spirituality is derived from Chinese Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism. The subject of which the school was the most influential is always debated as many concepts such as Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism and many others have come about. Other rebirth and Reincarnation concept is a reminder of the connection between current real-life and the after-life. The concept of guanxi, indicating the primacy of relations over rules, in the Chinese business has been well documented. While many deities are part of the tradition, some of the most recognized holy figures include Guan Yin, the Buddha and Jade Emperor.
The Culture of Chinese has been shaped by the Buddhism in a wide
variety of areas including art, politics, philosophy, literature and medicine,
and material culture. The translation of a large body of Indian Buddhist
scriptures into Chinese and the inclusion of these translations together with
works composed in China into a printed canon had far-reaching implications for
the dissemination of Buddhism throughout
the China. Chinese Buddhism is also marked by the interaction between Taoism,
Indian religions, and Chinese religion.
Religion:
During the Xia and Shang dynasties the religion of Chinese was
originally oriented to worshipping the supreme god Shang Di, with the diviners
and king acting as priests and using Oracle bones. The Zhou dynasty oriented it
to worshipping the broader concept of heaven. A large part of Chinese culture
is based on the notion that a spiritual world exists.
Methods of divination have helped to answer questions in wide
range, even serving as an alternative to medicine. To fill the Gap between the
things Folklores have helped that cannot be explained. There is often a blurred
line between religion, myth, and unexplained phenomenon. Into the traditional
Chinese holidays there are many of the stories have since evolved. Other concepts have extended to the outside of
mythology into spiritual symbols such as Imperial guardian lions and Door God.
Along with the belief of the holy, there is also the evil. Practices such as
Jiangshi and Taoist exorcism fighting mogwai with peachwood swords are
just some of the concepts passed down from generations. A few Chinese fortune
telling rituals are still in use today after thousands of years of
refinement.
Taoism is a philosophical tradition or religious of Chinese origin
which emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao (道, literally "Way", also romanized as
Dao). In most Chinese philosophical the Tao is a fundamental
idea; in Taoism, however, it denotes the principle that is the pattern, source,
and substance of everything that exists. Taoism differs from Confucianism by
not emphasizing Social order and rigid rituals. Depending on the particular
schools Taoist ethics varies, but in general tend to emphasize Wu Wei (effortless
action), "naturalness", spontaneity, simplicity, and the three
treasures: 慈 "compassion", 谦 "humility" and 儉/俭
"frugality", The roots of Taoism go back at least to the 4th century
BCE. Early from the School of Yinyang Taoism drew its cosmological notions (Naturalists),
and was deeply influenced by one of the oldest texts of Chinese culture, the
Yijing,
which expounds a philosophical system about how to keep human behavior in
accordance with the alternating cycles of nature. The “Legalist”Shen Buhai may
also have been a major influence, expounding a realpolitik of wu
wei. The Tao Te Ching, a compact book containing teachings attributed to
Laozi (Chinese: 老子; pinyin: Lǎozǐ; Wade-Giles: Lao
Tzu), is widely considered the keystone work of the Taoist tradition,
together with the later writings of Zhuangzi.
Philosophy and legalism:
Ruism, is also known as Confucianism, was the official
philosophy throughout most of Imperial China’s history, and mastery of
Confucian texts was the primary criterion for entry in to the imperial
bureaucracy. A number of more authoritarian strains of thought have also
been influential, such as Legalism. There was often conflict between the
philosophies, e.g. the Song dynasty Neo-Confucians believed Legalism departed
from the original spirit of Confucianism. Examinations and a Culture of merit remain
greatly valued in China today. In recent years, a number of New Confucians (not
to be confused with Neo-Confucianism) have advocated that democratic ideals and
human rights are quite compatible with traditional Confucian "Asian
values".
Confucianism is described as tradition, a religion, a
philosophy, rationalistic religion or a humanistic religion, a way of life or
simply a way of governing. Confucianism developed from what was later
called the Hundred
Schools of Thought from the teachings of the Chinese
philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE), who considered himself a re-transmitter
of the values of the Zhou dynasty golden
age of several centuries before. In the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), Confucian approaches edged out
the "proto-Taoist" Huang-Lao,
as the official ideology while the emperors mixed both with the realist
techniques of Legalism.
Hundred Schools of
Thought:
The Hundred Schools of Thought were philosophies and schools
that flourished from the 6th century to 221 BC, during the Autumn and Spring
period and the Warning States period of ancient China. That is the an era of great intellectual and Cultural expansion
in China, it was fraught with bloody and
chaos battles, and was also known as the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy because
a broad range of ideas, experiences and thoughts were discussed and developed freely. This phenomenon has been called
the Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought (百家爭鳴/百家争鸣: bǎijiā zhēngmíng: pai-chia cheng-ming;
"hundred schools contend"). The Ideas and thoughts refined and
discussed during this period have profoundly influenced social consciousness
and lifestyles up to the present day in China and across East Asia. The
intellectual society of this era was characterized by itinerant scholars, who
were often employed by various state rulers as advisers on the methods of
government, diplomacy and war. And this period ended with the rise of the
imperial Qin Dynasty and the subsequent purge of dissent. A traditional source
for this period is the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, or Shiji.
The autobiographical section of the Shiji, the "Taishigong
Zixu" (太史公自序), refers to the schools of thought described
in the next paragraph.
The Mohisim was an ancient Chinese philosophy of rational
thought , logic and Science developed by an academic scholars that were studied
under the old and ancient Chinese scholar that name is Mozi.(c. 470 BC–c. 391
BC) and embodied in an eponymous book: the Mozi. Another group is the School of
the Military (兵家; Bingjia) that studied warfare
and strategy;Sun Bin and Sunzi were influential leaders. The School of
Naturalists was a Warring States era philosophy that synthesized the
concepts of Five Elements and yin-yang; The founder of this school is
considered the Zou Yan. His theory attempted to explain the universe in
terms of basic forces in nature: the complementary agents of yin (female, dark,
cold, negative) and yang (light, hot, male, positive) and the Five Elements or Five
Phases (water, fire, metal, wood, and earth).
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